Teams & Riders The "MVP" Mathieu Van der Poel Road Discussion Thread

[Dekker_Tifosi]

It's also a bit "take what you can"

With AGR getting cancelled and possibly Roubaix as well, VDP doesn't want to waste his good legs when everything is cancelled again just like in the spring.

 

[Ricco']

6th on his first LBL.

I wonder if he could be closer to the top-4(5) without the effort of the BinckBank Tour.

Nevertheless, much more than I was hoping this morning!

 

[Asero831]

If he had a teammate to pull, he would have won the sprint

 

[Dekker_Tifosi]

13th MSR (in the group for 3rd place)
10th Lombardia (nearly getting back to the front group on the descend of the Sormano)
6th LBL (2nd group)
4th RVV 2019 (2nd group)
- PR (likely to do well)

Lombardia will be hard. MSR is a bit of a lotery.. but he definitately has the possible to win all 5

 

[yaco]

My ride of the day after his efforts yesterday at the Binck Bank tour.

 

[tobydawq]

13th MSR (in the group for 3rd place)
10th Lombardia (nearly getting back to the front group on the descend of the Sormano)
6th LBL (2nd group)
4th RVV 2019 (2nd group)
- PR (likely to do well)

Lombardia will be hard. MSR is a bit of a lotery.. but he definitately has the possible to win all 5

Yes. But right now, I would say Van Aert has a bigger chance.

 

[hayneplane]

Yes. But right now, I would say Van Aert has a bigger chance.

Especially as he already has MSR in the bag that can be the most tricky to win despite being the easiest to ride.

 

[tobydawq]

Especially as he already has MSR in the bag that can be the most tricky to win despite being the easiest to ride.

Exactly.

 

[Bardamu]

13th MSR (in the group for 3rd place)
10th Lombardia (nearly getting back to the front group on the descend of the Sormano)
6th LBL (2nd group)
4th RVV 2019 (2nd group)
- PR (likely to do well)

Lombardia will be hard. MSR is a bit of a lotery.. but he definitately has the possible to win all 5

Let's first win the one before thinking about five.

 

[roundabout]

Short of a course change and/or a massive improvement, I would say that Lombardia is impossible.

 

[senna6541]

Short of a course change and/or a massive improvement, I would say that Lombardia is impossible.

Well, if he can improve his climbing even half as much as VA has in literally just a few months, who knows. Then again, it's been a while (the 90's or early 2000's) since I've seen a top level rider "progress" the way Wout has at age 26.

 

[Logic-is-your-friend]

Well, if he can improve his climbing even half as much as VA has in literally just a few months, who knows. Then again, it's been a while (the 90's or early 2000's) since I've seen a top level rider "progress" the way Wout has at age 26.

But i'm sure if it were Mathieu, you wouldn't use the quotation marks and drop the insinuations, right?

 

[tobydawq]

Short of a course change and/or a massive improvement, I would say that Lombardia is impossible.

Honestly, this just seems stubborn.

He had done a 75 km solo attack the day before for crying out loud.

 

[Flamin]

The outstanding favourite for de Ronde for me. Van Aert a bit below since he should be over the edge of his peak by now. Imagine the two of them dropping the rest of the field on the Paterberg and riding together to the finish. That would be a dream for every cx fan and it's far from an unlikely scenario.

I might forget someone because it's such an odd year, but who's going to challenge them? Quick Step isn't looking strong so far at all for the cobbles, for their standards.

 

[Bolder]

I'm going to be a bit of a contrarian and say that MVDP made a tactical error by going on that long BBT attack, as thrilling as it was. Would you rather win the BinckBank Tour over SKA and Kung, or LBL over the World Champion, Hirschi and the 1-2 in the TdF?

He should have saved a few matches because he could have, in my view, easily outpunched the top 4 yesterday. It might not have played out like that but a fresher MVDP would have been right there fighting for the win instead of best of the rest.

 

[SafeBet]

Short of a course change and/or a massive improvement, I would say that Lombardia is impossible.

Not unheard of at Lombardia.

 

[roundabout]

Honestly, this just seems stubborn.

He had done a 75 km solo attack the day before for crying out loud.

Is this the forum version of 'Milan or Madrid - as long as it's Italy!'?

 

[Blanco]

Let's first win the one before thinking about five.

I think even winning one is not enough for such talk. Rider should win at least 2 different Monuments to start being considered for such a feat.

 

[pink_jersey]

Why didn't he go with Mohoric on the descent?

 

[gerundium]

Why didn't he go with Mohoric on the descent?

Yea i wonder about this as well. It's not clear to me at all what happened in the group behind. When they were on TV you often saw MVDP pulling that group around and in the end all of a sudden Mohoric closed the gap solo to the lead group. anyone heard how that happened?

 

[Bardamu]

Why didn't he go with Mohoric on the descent?

MvdP was doing most of the work in the chasing group, so I guess responding to every move was easier said than done.

 

[Dekker_Tifosi]

He said it was a few half attempts by Mohoric and he blames himself for not going with him. Which implies he could, but didn't. Believing it was better to work with the group probably?

Also regarding the big five. Sure van Aert has won one and looks more likely. But on the other hand who says this wasn't Van Aerts gilbert-like year and he can reproduce this every year? Too little info.
I know you shouldn't talk about the big five before winning one. But you have to consider VDP's lack of serious road racing until last year. He's basically 1 year 'behind' Van Aert in experience at WT level... And has now ridden all monuments bar 1 in the top 13 on his first attempt. I cannot underline that enough.

 

[fuiers]

Has he talked in past about attending in GT races in the future? I personally would like to see concentrate more on one day/week races since he seems to be on his comfort zone in those.

 

[Logic-is-your-friend]

Has he talked in past about attending in GT races in the future? I personally would like to see concentrate more on one day/week races since he seems to be on his comfort zone in those.

There was talk about TDF next year, and that they would not even let the Olympics get in the way of that, if they managed to get invited.

 

[Red Rick]

He said it was a few half attempts by Mohoric and he blames himself for not going with him. Which implies he could, but didn't. Believing it was better to work with the group probably?

Also regarding the big five. Sure van Aert has won one and looks more likely. But on the other hand who says this wasn't Van Aerts gilbert-like year and he can reproduce this every year? Too little info.
I know you shouldn't talk about the big five before winning one. But you have to consider VDP's lack of serious road racing until last year. He's basically 1 year 'behind' Van Aert in experience at WT level... And has now ridden all monuments bar 1 in the top 13 on his first attempt. I cannot underline that enough.

The thing is Van der Poel always talks about his *** ups as if they're tactical decisions played out wrong.

But then again he thought he didn't need to be at the front of the gruop at the last Oude Kwaremont.